Ken Doctor

Author: “Newsonomics: Twelve New Trends That Will Shape the News You Get”

Ken Doctor, a leading news industry analyst, is the author of “Newsonomics: Twelve New Trends That Will Shape the News You Get” (St. Martin’s Press). His Newsonomics.com is a daily, updated web companion to the book.

As a news industry analyst he covers the transformation of the news media, as it moves from print and broadcast to digital, focusing on changing business models and the journalism created.

His experience includes 21 years with Knight Ridder, as well as time spent in the worlds of magazines, alternative journalism and syndication.

[B-601] - Part 1: Introduction (7:13)

Ken Doctor, news industry analyst and author, “Newsonomics,”says the long-term prospects for newspaper profits continue to decline. But he says that newspaper journalists are operating at the beginning of the digital era and many are working hard “hoping to find models to sustain journalism.”

[B-602] - Part 2: Sales & Profits (6:06)

Ken Doctor, news industry analyst and author, “Newsonomics,”says Yahoo has been a leader in training newspaper sales staffs to sell digital advertising. Doctor says 10 percent profits would be sufficient to sustain the news industry, but he sees too many newspaper companies have kept up profits by cutting their newsrooms. He believes smaller community newspapers “have a better place to be into the future because what they do is truly unique.”

[B-603] - Part 3: News Content (7:50)

Ken Doctor, news industry analyst and author, “Newsonomics,”says readers “are more concerned with fairness than objectivity.”He says too many newspapers practice the reporting model of giving “two people a forum and then going home”in the name of objectivity. He suggests newspapers should post their ethical codes on their websites, “challenging the people who are new [the new digital sites] to do the same thing.”“Professional journalism is about something special,”says Doctor, and the industry should promote that differentiation.

[B-604] - Part 4: Adaptation & the Future (9:12)

Ken Doctor, news industry analyst and author, “Newsonomics”says because of newsroom cutbacks “we know less about our communities than we did 5 years ago.”Doctor says he sees no public groundswell demanding quality journalism. “It is really, unfortunately, up to a pretty thin layer of society – journalists and also the people who care about civil society – to figure out these business models,”says Doctor.